Maternity pay has gone too far

[EasterIssland]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c781m9v4255o

apologies if there is another thread about it.
havent seen one.

im lucky enough to have a good salary that would allow me saving beforehand . Statutory maternity pay would mean around 20-30% of my salary. Is this too far? It’s one of the many reasons why we decided to only have one. I felt really vulnerable when I was on maternity leave and didn’t feel I kept having spare cash every month. I do understand what she means tho , the sooner we’re back the less we get from the government and more taxes we pay. Coming from a woman hurts even more not being recognised the sacrifices we do whilst we are on maternity leave

This is what I remember! But surely even know you would have to work a certain amount of time before being able to claim maternity benefits

Mine were born 90, 94 and 03. Was self employed when having youngest so didn't get any maternity pay then

And only about 1% exclusively breastfed by then

And she wants to leave the ECHR

Plus she was notoriously incompetent as a minister. While that's something whose effects can be contained by civil servants in a government department, it's potentially disastrous in a Prime Minister.

@Gogogo12345 yes there is a qualifying period and then you're allowed 90% of your income for 6 weeks before going immediately to statutory minimum for the remainder. Which is £184 a week maximum.

That then ends entirely at 9 months.

Some companies pay enhanced but others don't. I worked for a very large company when I had my DD and got statutory minimum.

Radio 5 live discussing this now. Usual gammons are texting in calling women entitled and claiming women are lying on the sofa during mat leave 🙄

I'll be honest, I've seldom known this to be a problem in practice. Nurseries have ways of getting bottle refusers to take bottles, and if not, 7mo is old enough for a cup plus some solid food. Babies who don't take an awful lot of milk this way tend to adjust their balance a bit, eating most of their solids during the day and rather less milk, and then filling up more on the milk in the morning and evening with their mum. I think full time work is very hard with a baby this age, but part time was never an issue - and my eldest hated bottles! She did a cup and solid food when she was away from me.

FWIW, I am not arguing for changes in maternity leave provision, just pointing out that women usually can return to work earlier and continue BFing IF they want to, which I did.

Yes but after six months maternity the baby probably isn't even five and a half months and so won't even have started on solids yet. My bottle refusers were fine at nursery from 10 months, one even stopped breastfeeding and just drank no milk at all for a couple of months, but that's very different a to baby under six months, or one who's only just started on solids.

Yeah she can fuck right off.

Amazing (or not).

235 replies of which well over 200 have mindlessly accepted the BBC's misrepresentation of what was actually said as fact.

As far as I can see less than half a dozen of us actually checked the source interview for what she said.

If we can't be bothered to check basic facts for ourselves we don't deserve better governance or better politicians.

According to whom? I've heard the exact opposite many times from both third parties and civil servants in her departments (who were not necessarily that keen on the diligence). Michael Gove was not known for fostering useless underlings.

Disagreeing with a politician's policies by all means but do it by countering their policies with facts or different political positions rather than just cheap "rubbish" comments which are not evidenced in fact. If people just repeat tripe propagated on SM without checking basic facts (in this case what she actually said) then we lose the right to complain about the results.

She said current statutory maternity pay was too much business regulation. I don't think you can dispute that. Obviously she didn't say how much she wanted to deregulate it, but it can only be in the direction of less entitlement to maternity leave and/or less compulsory pay. Since current compulsory parental leave is not particularly generous this is quite enough to know where she stands.

Edit: don't be surprised by the way to see Starmer's government saying substantially the same thing any time now.

My daughter was also a bottle refuser - didn’t take one until she was well over a year! I had endless frozen milk and she fed like a demon either end of the day.

235 replies later and I have seen a few of these misrepresentation posts but no one’s actually corrected it with what she’s said that’s so to the contrary!?

Go on then - please enlighten us idiots.

Surely not before she was well on with weaning though (I did the same). Six months leave isn't enough time to get a baby sufficiently weaned onto solids to leave them for FT working hours.

I don't know why you think that, but what do you think was in the substance of what she said in full that doesn't imply she thinks maternity rights should be cut?

What do you think she said and how would you interpret it?
It's perfectly possible that lots of people are aware of what she said but have interpreted it differently to you.

Yes, she clearly said she was not referring to the amount of maternity pay but the amount of regulation and red tape involved. She said the actual amount is neither "here nor there".

Yes She has not clarified what ' deregulation' she meant. Businesses have to give a set amount of maternity leave. Many give more because they want to recruit and retain staff. They then claim it back ( with an uplift) from hmrc. She said it was taxpayers giving to 'non taxpayers' despite women who are entitled to maternity leave being taxpayers, hence being entitled to maternity leave. So what ' deregulation'? That businesses shouldn't be able to claim the money back? That they shouldn't have to give any maternity pay? That businesses should be able to make their own decisions about whether or not to offer maternity pay and leave? She has tied herself in knots and not thought through her own half baked ideas. That is no ones fault but her own.

Nope. She was asked about maternity pay and she said that maternity pay is a function of the tax system and involves taking from one group of people to give to another and that this was, in her opinion 'excessive'.
She also said 'there was a time when there wasn't any maternity and people were having more babies'. This really is a laughably stupid remark.

It's pretty clear who she is pandering to with her foolish and ill thought out statements and also clear who she does not support.

This is simply pandering to the wing of the Tory party who think that it's all the fault of these silly bloody women who keep having silly bloody babies which they then expect to be paid for, and who she anticipates will vote for her to be leader.

Exactly.

Yep this is it. Unfortunately we have a section of society (usually men over a certain age) who believe this. The misogyny reeks. And our country suffers with some of the worst parental and family policies as a result. The fact there are people that would like to see them cut further sickens me. Some people won’t be happy until we’re all wage slaves working 90 hour weeks with no hobbies, families, interests. Just sleep and work so someone else can get rich.

Agree. A number of posters have been quick to claim she is being misrepresented, still yet to see a compelling argument for that? She quite clearly suggested 9 months statutory maternity pay was too much regulation on businesses and heavily implied this, along with other statutory entitlements are the reason businesses fail. And also pushed for “more personal responsibility” and specifically mentioned a time when no statutory leave was available as though it was some sort of positive.
At a bare minimum she seems to be suggesting small business should be able to opt out of the ‘red tape’ of a minimum maternity leave and term.

Still waiting on the compelling argument as to why this isn’t at all what she meant and why hat she meant instead…